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Major investment firm accused of bowing to ‘right wing’ when it pulls out of global climate alliance

December 8, 2022 | | Print Article

The global elite’s climate change agenda just sustained a tough loss thanks to Vanguard Group Inc. pulling out of a major net-zero climate alliance, and climate change zealots are not pleased.

Vanguard has specifically pulled out of the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, which was “launched in late 2020 to encourage asset managers to hit a net-zero emission target by 2050 and help keep a rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” according to MarketWatch.

“That’s a voluntary temperature goal agreed to at the pivotal 2015 Paris climate meetings and is seen as the marker key to slowing atmospheric warming, calming acidifying oceans, preventing coastal erosion, and limiting severe droughts and other deadly and expensive environmental changes,” MarketWatch notes.

The initiative is basically rooted in ESG, which, as previously reported, refers to a company or entity’s willingness to adjust their business practices so they’re more in line with the “Environmental, Social, and Governance” goals of the global elite.

But why exactly has Vanguard withdrawn from NZAM? In a statement, the company attributed its decision to exit NZAM to a desire to operate more independently.

“Vanguard joined the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) in 2021. Such industry initiatives can advance constructive dialogue, but sometimes they can also result in confusion about the views of individual investment firms. That has been the case in this instance, particularly regarding the applicability of net zero approaches to the broadly diversified index funds favored by many Vanguard investors,” the statement reads.

“Therefore, after a considerable period of review, we have decided to withdraw from NZAM so that we can provide the clarity our investors desire about the role of index funds and about how we think about material risks, including climate-related risks—and to make clear that Vanguard speaks independently on matters of importance to our investors. This decision is part of our continuous assessment of our participation in external organizations and their ongoing alignment with Vanguard’s mission and perspectives on investing,” it continues.

However, investor Vivek Ramaswamy — a very vocal opponent of ESG — believes the real reason has to do with pressure that his company, Strive, has been applying to Vanguard and other companies.

“Vanguard made a big fuss out of leaving the ‘Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative’ today. That seems to be a response to the pressure we’ve put on them, and I’ve heard that some senior folks there aren’t very happy with us,” he tweeted Thursday.

Indeed, earlier this year Axios reported how Strive had launched “a new nationwide campaign aimed at getting major corporations to separate growth goals from increasingly polarized cultural issues characterized by environmental, social and governance (ESG).”

However, Vanguard’s decision to leave NXAM isn’t enough, Ramaswamy added in his tweets Thursday, because it’s also a part of a bunch of other ESG-tied initiatives.

Look:

Ramaswamy isn’t alone in believing that pressure from anti-ESG activists is at the root of why Vanguard has left NZAM. Climate change zealots like Casey Harrell of the climate policy group Vanguard S.O.S. (no relation to Vanguard) and Kristen Snow Spalding of the Ceres Investor Network believe the same.

“Vanguard has long lagged even its own industry peers in mitigating climate risks, but at least it claimed to be moving in the right direction. Vanguard is bowing to right-wing political pressure instead of serving its customers’ best interests. It’s now clear that investors who are concerned about climate risk should take their investments elsewhere,” Harrell complained to MarketWatch.

“It is unfortunate that political pressure is impacting this crucial economic imperative and attempting to block companies from effectively managing risks — a crucial part of their fiduciary duty,” Spalding likewise complained to Bloomberg.

Though to hear Lara Cuvelier, a sustainable-investment campaigner with the advocacy group Reclaim Finance, tell it, Vanguard was never serious about ESG, to begin with.

“[S]he believed Vanguard’s participation in NZAM to date was more publicity stunt and less pragmatic action,” according to MarketWatch.

“The initiative will no longer be held back by the lack of action by such a large player and can move ahead and push its members to deliver net zero and stop driving us towards climate chaos,” she said in her own words.

Keep in mind though that, as Ramaswamy noted in his tweets, Vanguard still isn’t entirely ESG free. For a truly ESG-free investment experience, consumers would have to turn to something like the MAGA fund:

Officially known as Point Bridge Capital, the fund “tracks an index of US large-cap companies whose employees and political action committees are highly supportive of Republican candidates,” meaning no ESG or any other “woke” nonsense.

Republished with permission from American Wire News Service

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Vivek Saxena
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